Assaults on Metro bus drivers spur call for on-board cameras

Published 4:01 pm Thursday, February 25, 2016

An assault on a King County Metro bus driver, a knife drawn on a sheriff’s deputy, a flight from the law.

While neither the driver nor any passengers were hurt in the Wednesday incident that began on a bus tooling through unincorporated Auburn, it’s just the sort of thing King County Executive Dow Constantine had in mind Feb. 25 when he proposed using on-board cameras to cut the number of such assaults.

Building on what Metro Transit says it has already done to cut the number of attacks on its drivers in recent years, Constantine said he wants to put cameras in all of the agency’s buses.

“It’s time for us to build on our progress, investing more in what works. That’s why I am requesting the funds needed to install cameras in every Metro bus as soon as possible,” Constantine said.

At about 8:45 a.m. Wednesday, a deputy responded to a reported assault on a bus driver in the 30200 block of 32nd Avenue South. A King County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said the suspect pulled a knife on the deputy and ran off into the woods.

Authorities used a police dog, a helicopter and other resources to search for the assailant, whom they found and took into custody some two hours after the assault.

Camelot Elementary School on South 298th Street was on lockdown throughout the search.

Metro has cameras inside 44 percent of its buses, which the agency says has contributed to its cutting the number of driver assaults by more than half since 2008. Constantine plans to ask for funding in the supplemental budget needed to install cameras in 80 percent of Metro’s bus fleet by early 2019, and 100 percent by early 2021.

Figures show the number of drivers assaulted has decreased by more than half since Metro launched its Operator Assault Reduction Program in 2009, from 180 assaults in 2008 to 77 assaults in 2015.

Steps taken to date are as follows:

• Installing security cameras, which act as a deterrent and provide evidence that can help with criminal prosecutions.

• Providing training to drivers to help them deescalate conflicts.

• Metro Transit Police deputies quickly respond to and investigate all operator assaults that are reported to them, which resulted in 26 arrests in 2015.

• Metro has already installed cameras on more than 600 of its 1,382 buses. The most recent buses purchased by Metro — including electric trolleys

• RapidRide models and the newest 60-foot-long buses — are coming installed with camera systems.

Constantine directed Metro to calculate how much it will cost to acquire, install and retrofit cameras for the remaining 770 buses. The proposal is subject to approval by the King County Council.